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Six traders have pleaded not guilty to a charge that they tried to rig a key global interest rate benchmark.

The five men and one woman appeared at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday in a prosecution brought by the Serious Fraud Office. Standing in the dock they all pleaded not guilty to a single charge of conspiracy to defraud between January 1 2005 and December 31 2009 by making or procuring false or misleading Euribor levels to bolster trading profits.

The individuals included Christian Bittar, 45, who was once one of Deutsche Bank’s most profitable traders, as well as Philippe Moryoussef, 48, a former trader at Barclays.

The six also included Anglo-Italian Carlo Palombo and Sisse Bohart who lives in Denmark as well as British-based Colin Bermingham and Achim Kraemer, a German still employed by Deutsche Bank.

They are all due to stand trial at Southwark Crown Court in September.

They are the first to face charges globally in relation to Euribor, the euro counterpart of the London interbank offered rate, or Libor.